Air Europa pilots are on the brink of strike action in Spain

Strike action in Spain among Air Europa pilots is moving ever closer.

As announced in a statement from Sepla, the Spanish Airline Pilots Union, today, Saturday, April 1, on Monday 3 it will request the mediation of the Interconfederal Mediation and Arbitration Service (SIMA) “in response to the unfeasibility of the downward proposals and the immobile attitude shown by Air Europa’s management in the face of the legitimate demands of the company’s pilots”.

Sepla regretted in its statement that Air Europa managers: “have ignored all the demands presented by the pilots in favour of fair working conditions and a recovery of the loss of purchasing power that workers have been suffering”. This brings the possibility of strike action at Air Europa in Spain ever closer.

Los pilotos, forzados a solicitar a la mediación del SIMA para convocar una huelga ante la falta de voluntad negociadora de Air Europa

Conoce más aquí: https://t.co/qJJ6IZtrrs pic.twitter.com/9espvhfjSS

— Sepla (@sepla_pilotos) April 1, 2023

The union assured that the company proposal meant: “a material and objective loss in their conditions, which is having a negative impact on the workers, generating an increase in labour tension within the collective”.

It highlighted that it does not understand how Air Europa is turning its back on them after, in its opinion: “the conciliatory and constructive attitude that the pilots have shown towards the company over the last ten years and, especially, during the pandemic”.

As far as Sepla is concerned, mediation is the last resort to which it has been led by: “the disregard for the demands shown by Air Europa, before calling a strike”. An attitude that, for the pilots, “is all too familiar”, it added.

Air Europa pilots, meeting in an assembly on February 10, gave their full support to this organisation, with 94.38 per cent of the votes in the ballot. Its members voted to take: “the necessary measures to defend their working conditions”. The vote, according to Sepla, was attended by more than 91 per cent of the technical crew members affiliated with the union.

The pilots’ threat comes at a time when Air Europa has begun to regain its footing after the difficult situation it experienced during the pandemic. During that period, air traffic was interrupted for several months. That left the company’s maintenance at a minimum afterwards which forced it to ask for more than €600 million in aid from the state, including a bailout and loans guaranteed by the ICO.

The airline is also awaiting the opinion of the European Commission’s competition authorities on the recent sale agreement reached by its owner, Globalia, with Iberia’s parent company, IAG, for €500 million, as reported by larazon.es.

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